PLATE 372. 
Salaoia alternifolia, Hochst. Fl. Cap. Vol. I. p. 280 (sub. S. Kraussii, Eochst). 
Natural Order, Celastbine.e. 
A slender glabrous undershrub, simple or branched, witli yellow-green flowers. 
Stems and branches terete, bark rough, dark coloured. Leaves alternate, sub- 
sessile or very shortly petiolate, oblong or broadly lanceolate, obtuse at base and 
apex, margins quite entire or very indistinctly crenate ; coriaceous, indistinctly 
penninerved, dark green; 1 to 2-| inches long, 1 to 1^ inch wide; stipules very 
minute and soon deciduous ; petiole ^ to 1-| line long. Inflorescence axillary, the 
pedicels clustered in the axils, ^ to ^ inch long ; buds globose. Calyx much 
shorter than the petals, 4-lobed or parted, the lobes unequal, orbicular in outline, 
concave, puberulons, green ; margins brown, membranous. Petals 4 to 7, imbri- 
cate in gestivation, oblong, spreading, to 8 to 4 lines diameter, green, pubescent 
externally. Stamens 3, hypogynous, inserted inside a thick fleshy annular, peri- 
gynous disk ; filaments much flattened, tapering to apex, at length strongly 
recurved; anthers 2-celled, extrorse, dehiscing in bud. Ovary half immersed in 
the disk, 3-celled, ovules 2 or more in each cell; style very short; stigma 3-lobed. 
Habitat - Natal: Margins of woods, Krauss; Pappe; Gueinzius ; Inanda, 
1,800 feet alt., Wood, 567 ; near Durban, 100 feet alt., Wood (Goverment 
Herbarivim, 3,565). 
In the Flora Capensis the genus Salacia appears under the Order Hippocra- 
teaceae, but that Order is now united with Celastrineae ; the genus contains 
according to the Genera Plantarum 60 to 70 species, trees, shrubs and climbers, 
and of these one only is found in South Africa, and 15 or more in tropical Africa. 
^^ alterriifolia is described in the Flora <';ipensis as S. Ko-aitssi, Hochst, the other 
species there described, 8. Zt^yhcn, Planch is now known as Bhamnm Zeyheri, 
Spreng. 
Fig. 1, a flower ; 2, calyx ; 3, a petal ; 4, disk, stamens and pistil ; 5, a 
stamen ; 6, pistil ; ciR enlarged. 
